Archive for November, 2009

The part they aired on TV was pretty good, but I really liked the Internet-only portion of the Lou Dobbs interview on The Daily Show. It pains me to say it, but I don’t think Jon scored any better than a draw on this one. But regardless of winners and losers, there were some real nice moments.

Thomas Friedman has definitely got the pithy sound bite thing down pat. The last few times I’ve seen him on TV I’ve had the same two reactions: 1) Yeah, I think he’s right, but 2) the way he’s selling it is more about memorable catch-phrases than simply speaking the truth.

But maybe he’s on to something. In an era when Sarah Palin can attract significant numbers of supporters who think she’s actually worth listening to, maybe you can’t overestimate the importance of wrapping your message in folksy packaging. We don’t have to convince the scientists — they’re already convinced. We have to convince the people who honestly believe Fox News is a credible source.

I’m not sure how you do that. But Thomas Friedman is giving it a try, as he does in this op-ed piece from the NYT: What They Really Believe.

My argument is simple: I think climate change is real. You don’t? That’s your business. But there are two other huge trends barreling down on us with energy implications that you simply can’t deny. And the way to renew America is for us to take the lead and invent the technologies to address these problems.

His bottom line: Those working to thwart cap-and-trade and clean-energy incentives are not just wrong. They’re unpatriotic.

It’s been a while since I linked to a Kevin Drum item, and I see today that he’s having the same can’t-look-away mixture of abhorrence and fascination with Sarah Palin that I (and plenty of others, I’m sure) have been having:

So why is Sarah Palin so endlessly fascinating? The sex appeal that practically oozes out of every pore? Her perpetual family soap opera? A sense of besiegement and resentment so powerful it practically knocks you over every time she speaks? The fact that she actually seems to take pride in her complete lack of policy expertise? Her seemingly total lack of real self-awareness? The fact that she lies so casually it seems like she actually believes everything she makes up?

Yeah, I think that about covers it. She honestly doesn’t do much for me in the sex-appeal department, but the brazen lies make up for it. I’ve had a bit of a void in that area of my life lately.

“Our very way of life is under siege,” said Mortensen, whose understanding of the Constitution derives not from a close reading of the document but from talk-show pundits, books by television personalities, and the limitless expanse of his own colorful imagination.